During World War II alone, Joseph Stalin killed an estimated 20 to 60 million people. Born in the late 1870s, Stalin began his rise to power at age 43, and by age 45, he had betrayed Vladimar Lenin to eventually become leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin was a cruel man, even killing an artist for not painting him the way he wanted. He also made considerable use of the Communist International movement in order to keep other communist parties pro-Stalinist and pro-Soviet. Stalin is today considered one of the most sadistic leaders of the last century, surpassing even Adolf Hitler in the eyes of some people. Joseph Stalin was the man who transformed the Soviet Union from a backward country into a global superpower, at unimaginable human cost. Joseph Stalin was one of the cruel leaders in all of history, alongside figures such as Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte. He destroyed anyone and anything in his path. When Lenin died, Stalin had to compete with Leon Trotsky. “Stalin's victory was slow and hard-fought, but in 1927 he succeeded in having Trostky expelled from the party and, in 1929, from the country (Trotsky was hunted down and killed by Stalin's agents in Mexico in 1940)” (Unknown). Even though Trotsky's personal authority was unquestioned, Stalin managed to convince the Russian people to follow him, not Trotsky. With his five-year plan, Stalin envisaged creating a system of collective agriculture and making the USSR powerful and industrial. Both of these goals would require massive massacres, particularly against the Ukrainian population. Stalin caused a famine from 1932 to 1933, killing an estimated six to seven million people and causing the fall of Ukraine. A combination of Stalin's drive for total power and his paranoia led to middle of paper...... Talin, the Nazis most likely would not have lost to the Allied Powers. Even though today Stalin is seen by as many people as one of the most evil people in all history, he changed Russia for the better. To defeat Lenin and Trotsky and become the leader of the USSR, they took their ideas and used them to make it one of the most powerful countries to date. Although his methods may have been useless, they are what shaped the world as it is today. marxist.com/1927-expulsion-leon-trotsky.htmhttp://history1900s.about.com/od/people/ss/Stalin_2.htmhttps://www.marxists.org/archive/weisbord/Stalinism.htmhttp:// www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communism http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/01/joseph-stalin-more-popular-in-russia-now_n_2791776.html